I encountered the word kalopsia (the state in which things appear more beautiful than they really are) on a website of arcane words (http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm). I have looked for it in other dictionaries, but can't find it. Does anyone have any idea what a contextual usage of this word would be? Adjective or adverb forms? does one suffer from kalopsia, falls into kalopsia, or feels kalopsia. can one be kaloptic?

What an interesting word! I imagine one might experience kalopsia when falling in love, and perhaps also during the period just following meditation. Everything often seems much brighter in color and more clearly defined after meditating for some time. And we all know how infatuation affects our senses, so that kalopsia is rampant in all perceptions of the beloved one.

Indeed, "kaplosia" is a noun. Today it is used to refer to artists who think they work is "art" when reality it isn't. At an art show one could say about a particular artist upon looking at their work that they suffer from kalopsia.

OneLook yields four hits (link). I found it in the brick and mortar Mrs Byrne's dictionary, but who knows where she found it. Maybe Ron O. knows ... I checked b&m LSJ, which only yielded the rare καλωπος (kalōpos) 'having beautiful eyes'.

China can bring on serious bouts of kalopsia in otherwise intelligent observers, but this visit [sc. Hu's] was significant because it was mundane.

which, incidentally, generated the following response:

Finally Barry Hyman sends a demand from Hertfordshire: "Now just stop it! After 40 years of reading The Times (with only a small break during your strike) I've become used, bowing to your intellectual superiority, to having my Chambers Dictionary alongside for the occasional odd word you use that I do not know. But 'kalopsia', for heaven's sake (leading article, Monday)? Even Chambers didn't have that. Googling brings up a site called 'Worthless word for today' which tells me that it means 'the delusion that things are more beautiful than they really are'.

Enough already, unless there is a word for 'the determination to humiliate one's dedicated readers'." There is, Mr Hyman, and we use it daily in the office, chuckling all the while. Anyway, I wager that from now on you'll be using kalopsia yourself - although you've made us reach for our dictionaries again, just to make sure.

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